Hazus Tsunami Model

This page provides information on the Hazus Tsunami Model, including new release features. This page is intended for Hazus users and other parties interested in using Hazus, specifically the Tsunami Model for mitigation and planning efforts.

Features of the Hazus Tsunami Model

The Hazus Tsunami Model represents the first new disaster module for the Hazus software in almost 15 years and is the culmination of work completed on the Hazus Tsunami Methodology Development (FEMA, 2013) by a team of tsunami experts, engineers, modelers, emergency planners, economists, social scientists, geographic information system (GIS) analysts, and software developers. A Tsunami Oversight Committee provided technical direction and review of the methodology development. New features with the model include:

Territory Analysis: This release represents the first time that analysis will be available for U.S. territories (Puerto Rico, Guam, American Samoa, Commonwealth of Northern Mariana Islands, and U.S. Virgin Islands).

New Point Format: The Hazus General Building Stock (GBS) for the Tsunami release will use a new National Structure Inventory (NSI) point format (details in User Release Notes available with download).

Case Studies: The Tsunami Module will require user-provided data, so the Hazus Team has provided five case study datasets for users, which will be available on the MSC download site.

Two Types of Damage Analysis: Users will be able to run both near-source (Earthquake + Tsunami) and distant-source (Tsunami only) damage analysis.

The FEMA Risk Management Directorate (RMD) wishes to thank the DHS Science and Technology Directorate (S&T) Flood Apex Program, the FEMA Natural Hazards Risk Assessment Program (NHRAP), and the FEMA Risk MAP Programs for their support in the development and implementation of the new Tsunami module.